Across the Hudson River from New Jersey in the Bronx, a Yankees fan wore a precious paper bag to protest the team’s August slump.
Photo:
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
Why is it so difficult for politicians to understand that the benefits of government mandates should outweigh the costs? Monday’s column may have been too optimistic in forecasting possible relief from New Jersey’s ill-conceived ban on disposable grocery bags. But at least the author of this hassle seems willing to consider how the problems he created could be mitigated.
Since May, New Jersey law has prohibited both paper and plastic disposable bags at supermarkets. As in a number of other locales, pols had little interest in quantifying the alleged health benefits or the inevitable costs before enacting still another burden on consumers.
But since prohibition began, even those inclined toward empty environmental gestures have noticed that “reusable” bags have been piling up all over the place and will in many cases need to be cleaned before being used again or may just wind up sitting in landfills.
In a Tuesday telephone interview New Jersey state Sen. Bob Smith (D.) said he’s working on a reform of the law he authored but is only targeting relief from the rules on bags used by delivery services. And among the options he’s considering is simply another mandate—this one forcing delivery businesses to pick up used bags and clean them.
How about first studying the costs and benefits of the grocery bag ban itself? Mr. Smith seems open to the idea but rejected a suggestion that the state suspend enforcement of his law until the study is published.
Is it too much to ask that politicians clearly define a problem before they force consumers to pay for the alleged solution?
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The Politics of Immigration Are Due for a Change
Martha’s Vineyard isn’t the only liberal enclave where residents are inhospitable toward illegal migrants. The crowd that likes to display “Hate Has No Home Here” yard signs doesn’t necessarily want anyone else to have a home there, either. This column will go out on a limb and predict that left-leaning jurisdictions will continue to be much more aggressive in signalling virtue than in offering shelter. This prediction is especially solid given the origination of the new arrivals. The Journal’s Michelle Hackman reports:
Migrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua are driving the continued record pace of illegal migration at the southern border, with more than three times as many migrants from those countries arrested so far this year as at the same point in 2021, government data show.
Does the political left want to welcome migrants who know all about the misery inflicted by politicians calling themselves democratic socialists?
While this column is making predictions, here’s one you can take to the bank: This latest group of newcomers includes many people who, if given the chance, will become fiercely patriotic new Americans.
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Conservatives Pounce!—and for Good Reason
The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board is still coming to terms with the failure of leftist governance and is now seeking to acknowledge the results without admitting the cause. But the recovery process has clearly begun. A Chronicle editorial states:
San Francisco takes more than its share of shelling in the American culture wars. For years, the relentless drumbeat of the national right-wing media has portrayed our city as the filthiest and most dangerous in America. And it has argued that this tragic fate of a once-great place is the natural end-product of our liberal beliefs.
Most of us who live here don’t regard our values as the embodiment of American decline. Nor should we.
But it’s also obvious that San Franciscans aren’t happy with their city and the direction it’s headed. So how do we reconcile San Francisco’s unique place at the center of the info wars with the recent recalls of three school board commissioners and District Attorney
Chesa Boudin
? How do we differentiate legitimate local grievances — and proposed solutions to resolve those grievances — from the political ambitions and propaganda of those who have no vested interest in meaningfully improving this city?
Let’s be patient as anguished media folk lash out at conservatives for the offense of noticing the city’s decay. Recovery is a journey and these are just the hesitant initial media steps.
All kidding aside about the city’s journalists, they can do an enormous public service by noting and acknowledging the widespread pain and daily struggles of San Franciscans. On that score, the Chronicle editorial reports dreary findings from a survey of city residents:
Nearly half of respondents (45%) say they have been a victim of crime in the last five years. Nearly a quarter (24%) say they had been threatened or physically attacked over that same period, and 36% of Latino residents have faced that threat, the highest of any group…
Not only do San Franciscans overwhelmingly think their city isn’t being well-run, they have little optimism for its future and their place in it. Nearly a third of those surveyed said that they anticipate they will no longer live in San Francisco within the next three years. More than half of Latino residents feel that way, once again, the most impacted group…
The more respondents claimed to know about how this city operates, the less faith they have in its leaders’ ability to govern competently. Out of those who claimed to know “a great deal” about city affairs, 74% say the Board of Supervisors is doing a poor or very poor job, while 58% say the same about Mayor Breed.
San Francisco’s experiment in so-called progressive governance has failed. Broad acknowledgment of this fact is the first critical step toward a turnaround.
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James Freeman is the co-author of “The Cost: Trump, China and American Revival.”
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